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Every year I look forward to the visit of Irish angler Nick Hannon. Nick has joined me for the 3rd year in a row now, for a 3 day adventure on Rutland Water. We have had some ridiculously good buzzer fishing the past two years, however this season, a new food source was on the menu, the SHRIMP ! Could it now become the new March & April food source? As we headed out onto the lake, we decided on the sailing club bay, as a SW wind gave us nice shelter, for either our buzzer or shrimp set up...

So, all the rumours are that the fish are very close to the shores on, Grafham, Rutland, and Pitsford. I am a realist, and appreciate not all fish will be hugging the shores, however for the past 7 weeks, I have barely fished in water deeper than 6', and had some scintillating sport, with browns up to 5.5lb, and rainbows up to 10lb ! So what's driving this? There is one obvious reason -fish food ! There has been unprecedented midge hatches in the margins this year, followed by 1000's, if not millions of daphnia flees, and now on top...

Pre-season, there was a lot of talk of the fishing at Rutland would fish slow from the shores due to the low water levels through the winter, however the complete opposite has happened, catching some folk out, whom didn't renew season tickets, believing bank fishing would be a no-go. So, why is this? Say hello to the shrimp!! I have fished Rutland a lot this last 4 weeks, and a lot of the fish just have not shifted from the shores, no matter where I have fished, North or South. These critters seem pretty prevalent now, and the fish are...

Both Rutland & Grafham Water have experienced some fantastic buzzer fishing this last 8 weeks. What has been noticeable, is the widespread feeding activity. ! The fish can be found absolutely everywhere on these two waters. There was much talk pre-season at Rutland that with the low winter water levels, rapidly filled in the early spring, would have killed off buzzer beds around the shores, thus sending fish from the shores packing ! In fact, it has been the complete opposite. The fish just won't, as of now, leave the margins. Normanton, Berrybuts, Green Bank, Dickinsons Bay, Sailing Club, Yellow...

It is no secret that Rutland is producing some big catches at the moment, and buzzers are certainly at the top of the menu. However there is one other part with this buzzer bonanza, that you could argue, you could catch just as well with other tactics -and you can ! Patrick was my guest on Tuesday, and we wanted a leisurely approach, therefore we opted to fish buzzers on a floating line. There was a bright blue sky, a light wind, and this had the ingredients for a buzzer hatch at the warmest part of the day, and at...